CELEBRATING THE 4TH OF JULY

The Thousand Trails here at LaConner, WA., is located on Native American Land, and according to posted signs, the preserve property is subject to terms of a lease with the tribe. This doesn't really have any impact on the folks who camp here, except for the fact that the local first nation's people, evidently like to celebrate the 4th of July with lots of fireworks, particularly the kind that go BOOM! We've been hearing lots of booms the last few days, which escalated yesterday to an almost non stop cavalcade of explosions. For the last 2 nights, our fearless Beagle has moved from her normal bed on the couch, to the cat's bed under the table, which Gracie seldom uses. I guess she feels more secure there, than on the sofa. At least she hasn't been jumping in bed with us, like she sometimes does when we experience a thunder storm.

Our activity yesterday consisted of a trip into Anacortes, (another view of the town above), for some hardware items, and what we thought would be a quick stop at Safeway. As we hit town, the local parade was just finishing near the Safeway, and it became evident very quickly that this was a very popular parking spot for parade watchers. After driving around a bit, we finally found a place to park, and went inside the store. It appeared that everyone else had the same idea, because I don't think I've ever seen that many people in a grocery store. As we dodged between shopping carts, and picked up what we needed, I heard on the PA system "all available checkers to the front". I knew at that point we were in big trouble! As we headed toward a checkout counter, the lines for each, were back into the grocery aisles. So, we went to the end of one of the lines, and sure enough, along comes someone who was either too dumb to look at all of the people waiting, or, just decided that waiting their turn didn't apply. I'm normally pretty quiet about most situations, but in my book, a "line cutter" ranks right up there with bank robbers, and international terrorists. This serious breech of human politeness, was quickly dispatched, when I verbally cast the indignant spotlight on this miscreant, who of course played dumb to the whole situation. One of the many benefits, (and in some cases, negatives) of traveling around the country like we do, it gives us the chance to witness human behavior at it's best, and sometimes at it's worst. We finished the day with a quiet afternoon in the motor home, except for the booming celebration of our nation's birthday.